chartreuse

now i've never used etex, but i heard that if u let it sit long enough it will congeal to the constancy of devcon. true?

thanks for divulging the "secret"; i just noticed that there are duplicate shapes on the lure lol. so whats the paperclip for, holding the stencil? may i also ask if it was a rigid cutout or a frisket type material? i'd truly like to learn stencil techniques better before i screw-up this one of mine. i gotta plan everything out before i speed paint in my 40degree garage (no kidding, its actually 40 or less at the moment ). it'll be be like painting in the refrigerator, so at least i'll have that part of Rookie's method down.

how'd ya make the halo bass spots in this pic? i'm assuming by stencil... but it looks freehanded, or could it be a little of both?

AWESOME JOB MAN! its always a great feeling when u've saved one from the fire pit thank u for sharing your findings with the puddy and whatnot. i'm still doubtful regarding the necessity of ventral vortexes though (your test confirmed this)... maybe someone should further investigate this whole phenomena. i was always under the assumption that much of swimbait movement was created through lateral displacement, not vertical.

nice ideas here... one thing though, like PBalsa said, i doubt the center of mass will be able to remain above the water line. more than likely, the lure will correct itself and turn upside down from how u want it. placing the centroid just below the water line may still give u that instability u r looking for.

here's the location of the bigger pic: http://www.tackleunderground.com/photos/index.php?n=2258 in contradistinction to all that has been said... has anyone looked at the Jackall Giron? its practically the same dimensions of the problem bait here. the only variations between the Giron and the non-swimmer are the size/material of the fins and the # of joints (and possibly the width of the lure as well as the exact weighting, but those are difficult to observe from a single side shot lol). the Giron is lacking the ventral depth/elongation, yet it swims... it has an extremely thin head and body width, yet it swims... it has rigid fins (not too big) and yet it swims... my guess, like others have already made, is that the fins are causing too much drag - just cut 'em down a little, or a lot lol

for the most part detailed paint jobs are for the fishermen, whereas action, profile, and general color scheme are fish oriented. there have been days where the detailed ones do seem to out produce bland though. those finicky clear water smallmouths can be tough sometimes. some days i'll throw every lure i have at em', yet the only takers come on the elaborate baits.

the flat head provides a baits orientation with resistance build-up, but it alone does not cause the action. much of the vibration is caused by the same principle of a flag flying in the wind. as air/water passes by, there will be a tendency for the medium to flow past one side better than the other, thus causing a flux towards that side. the neglected side will then try to compensate for this, causing an ongoing and dynamic role reversal. some lipless baits are completely lacking of a flat head and yet they still function similar to others.

my advice is to google search this stuff

if you

i was in the same situation not too long ago... in short, i went to town on a large piece of cardboard, spraying it with water (and eventually with black airbrush paint) in all sorts of configurations. once i got the gist of how the paint flowed i sprayed a couple "dud" baits before attempting the real thing. even with all the practice my results were far from what i wanted, but still, with more trials anything is possible. i've actually held-off painting a few baits in hopes that my skills will catch up with my imagination someday. lol:teef:

candy foil works nicely. it's thin and malleable, yet strong enough to fit contours without tearing. you can find it at craft stores carrying food making supplies, such as Joanne's or Michael's.

oops.. my bad lol

i think this is the type of joint system you're seeking... sry for the small pic, ^note how the tail curves nicely^ can't locate the site i took it from but i guess it was made by a guy named "Tim C."

i've done this already... it swam surprisingly "normal"

ive had that problem before. i simply drilled a hole at the base of the bait, inserted lead, and sealed it. make the weight as low as possible since the problem youre trying to solve is the higher than normal center of gravity.